All My Love, Santana
by thecarwashkid
Summary: When a tradgic mishappening throws Santana off guard, she thinks back on her life; the good times, the bad times and all the times Brittany was in it.


**April 28****th**** 1975 – Jungle Warfare – Vietnam**

It's a dark, eerie night in the think, Vietnamese jungle. The rain pelting down and hammering off everything it touches. A loud explosion is heard in the far distance, followed by a loud, high-pitched scream. Swiftly moving through the long grass; a small group of American soldiers, firing their rifles at random in all directions, in hopes to kill the enemy. All around, both American and Vietnamese are falling and running, trying to find shelter from the rain and the enemy rifle fire. The group of soldiers stop suddenly at their Lieutenants command as they approach an abandoned trench, jumping in it for cover and cringing as they plunge into the muddy, waist length puddle that has built up in there. It becomes quiet and thinking that the fighting had died down for a moment; the young Lieutenant climbs up the trench wall and peers over the top to have a look at what was going on

"Grenade!"

The Lieutenant beckons the men to get out of the over side of the trench and to run away as the grenade flies towards them. That command deems to be difficult, as the rain pushes them back down and they slide across the muddy wall – four of the men manage to finally climb over, holding out their hands to pull out the remaining two.

Watching from a short distance, a tall, dark haired man stares in anticipation as the grenade bounces and rolls a few feet away from the trench.

"Lieutenant!" he screams out as he notices that his Lieutenant is still struggling to get out of the trench. He sprints back to the trench, firing his rifle randomly as he runs.

"Get outta here, Eugene!" the Lieutenant begins, but is cut off by the ear splitting sound and the blinding flash of the explosion.

* * *

**June 31****st**** 1964 – Lima, Ohio**

Santana staggers back from the blinding flash of the bright evening sun that streams through the curtains as she opens them. Shielding her eyes, she closes them a bit and throws herself on her bed. She shuffles up and sits at the end of it, clutching a picture frame close to her chest and stares out of the window – idly watching a figure dancing around on the front yard across the street. She snaps out of her daze when she hears her mother calling her from the bottom of the stairs. Placing the frame back on the dresser, she gets up from her bed, wipes her eyes and opens the curtains to let in some light into her room before making her way down the stairs.

"Finally!" her mother says, angrily, "I've been stood here for ten minutes, Santana. What were you doing in there? Your soup is getting cold." Santana didn't reply. She just kept her head down and shoved past her mother without even looking at her. Her mother was a strict looking woman, with greying hair tied up in a neat beehive. Her face was an older version of Santana's, but there always seemed to be a look of constant disapproval that was pasted on lately – a look that Santana had grown used to seeing these past couple of months. She was wearing a blue waitress uniform, with a name tag that read 'Rita'.

The young Latina sat down at the small dining table in the middle of the kitchen and played around with her soup. Rita picks up a plate of freshly baked bread rolls from the counter and places them in the middle of the dining table before she sits down opposite Santana to eat her own soup. Grabbing a bread roll, she notices her daughters' behaviour with her food.

"Something wrong, nená?" she kindly asks. Santana throws her spoon down into her soup and pushes her chair back to get up. Rita stares at her as she just stands looking down at her soup. The older woman frowns and continues to eat. "This has got to stop, quierda." she adds, more sternly this time.

"No tengo hambre"Santana replies, before she walks out of the kitchen and out of the house, slamming the front door shut. Rita watches the front door for a moment before realising that her daughter wasn't going to be walking back in. She signs, stands up and picks up Santana's soup bowl and places it in the fridge.

Santana sits on front door step, staring across the street at the dancing figure she was watching from her window earlier. She narrows her eyes and leans forward on her elbows to get a closer look and realises that the figure is a girl – her long golden hair tied up in a neat pony tail, blowing in the warm summer air. The girl grins widely over at Santana and waves an enthusiastic wave. Santana is taken aback after she realises that the girl noticed her staring at her. Embarrassed, Santana waves back. The blonde giggles and motions for the Latina to go over to her. Santana looks around, confused and points to herself, causing the blonde to giggle again and nod. She gets up, straightens down the creases in her shirt with her hands and walks awkwardly over to the dancer.

"Come on, slowpoke!" the blonde girl jokes as Santana moves at a painfully slow pace. Her voice – so pure and innocent sounding – causes Santana to blush. She shakes her head and jogs over to her. "Hi" the blonde continues, holding out her hand for Santana to shake.

"Hi." The Latina replies, her voice sounding shaky and quiet. She accepts the blonde girls' handshake and stares down at their clasped hands. The girl giggles, causing Santana to blush again. What was this weird feeling that she felt every time this girl laughed?

"Brittany S. Pierce."

Santana looks at Brittany. Her pale blue eyes staring deep into Santana's dark brown eyes. Their eyes remain locked for a few moments before Brittany giggles again, causing Santana's stomach to tighten – in the good way. She looks down and lets' go of Brittany's hand, staring at the floor trying to hide her burning cheeks. _Come on Santana, _she thought to herself,_ what's the matter?_

"So, do you have a name?"

"A what?" Santana replies rather imprudently. The dancer giggles again and Santana looks up at her. A wide smile spreads across the Santana's face when she notices how beautiful Brittany is. Brittany tilts her head and looks at the girl in front of her.

"A name, silly. Like, I'm Brittany. What do you go by?"

"Santana."

"Pretty."

Santana's stomach flips at Brittany's word, causing her to blush once again. Brittany turns around and walks towards a dolls house that is sitting on the yard a few feet away from where they were standing. She sits down in front of it and picks up two figures. She looks over at Santana and smiles.

"Would you like to play, Santana?"

Santana narrows her eyes and shakes her head. "I'm fifteen; I don't play with silly little dolls anymore." She watches as Brittany's eyes widen and begin to tear up. She steps over to her and sits down next to her, putting her hand on the blondes' knee. "Hey, come on. I didn't mean it like that. It's just – "

Brittany places a hand on top of Santana's and pats it. She turns around and looks her in the eyes. "No, I understand. It was a stupid idea anyway. Do you want to go to the park with me?" she asks, pulling her hand away from Santana's hand. Santana nods and watches as Brittany stands up and brushes her hands over her skirt to flatten it out. She holds out her hand for Santana to hold for support on standing up, and when Santana is stood up, the dancer wraps her arms around her. Blushing, Santana returns the hug awkwardly.

"Thanks." Brittany breathes as she pulls away from the hug.

"For what?"

Brittany smiles a toothy grin at the dark haired girl but doesn't reply to her question. Santana watches with a confused look as Brittany stares at her – Brittany still smiling, Santana still blushing. Moments pass before the dancer finally stops smiling and turns around to skip towards the park with Santana sheepishly following.

* * *

The due arrive at the small, abandoned, rusty looking park fifteen minutes later. Brittany screams a happy laughter when she notices it's empty and startles Santana who jumps at the sudden loud noise. Brittany turns around and giggles when she notices the Latina clutching her chest with her left hand and her right hand in the air, raising her index finger indicating she needed a moment to catch her breath while trying to hide a smirk. The young blonde looks back at the park and her gaze glazes over to the swing set. Santana watches as she jumps up and down, pointing. Santana rolls her eyes and nods as she tilts to the right to see what all the commotion was about.

"Yay!" Brittany screams as she runs towards the swing set before she pretty much throws herself on it and kicking off the ground to swing. Santana slowly walks into the park and notices that Brittany is struggling to swing; she runs up behind the swing set and offers to give her a push.

After a few hard, steady pushes and Santana telling the blonde how to move her legs to keep the swing from stopping, she sits down on the floor and leans again the park railings. She watches as Brittany swings back and forth giggling and can't help but smile. There was something about this innocent girl that Santana had taken an instant liking too. Minutes pass and Santana is lost in another daze, just watching the blonde. Brittany stops the swing and stares at the girl on the floor, who is wearing a dumbstruck look on her face. She watches for a while, before waving her hand in front of the Latina's face.

"Santana?" Brittany whispers with concern. Santana snaps out of her daze and curses in Spanish under her breath as Brittany watches, confused. "What's wrong, Santana? You looked out of it for a moment then. Was it something I said?"

Santana stands up and frowns at the floor. "Huh, what? I was just thinking about my... something. What did you say?"

"I was just stating how quiet and nice the park is at this time of day. No-one comes here anymore 'cause they think it's a load of garbage. Personally, I think it just needs a bit of fresh paint and a bit of oil here and there." She rattles the chain on the swing and listens to the noise before she cringes.

Santana widens her eyes at Brittany and nods, "Yeah, I guess so." Brittany watches as Santana's eyes trail off into the distance. The dancer turns around to see what the dark haired girl was staring at before looking back at her.

"Santana, what's the matter?

Santana snaps out of her daze again and shakes her head before sitting back down, Brittany following her down and sitting crossed legged in front of her. The blonde places her elbows on Santana's knees and leans her head on her hands. Santana finds it weird that Brittany was so forward, even though they had only met not half an hour before; but she couldn't care less – there was something about Brittany that Santana had taken an instant liking too after all and felt as if she had know her for years.

"It's nothing. Honestly, Britt. Just had a little bit of an argument with mi Madre." Santana finally replies and watches as Brittany's brow knits in confusion, pulling her elbows from the Latina's knees and learning back on her hands. Before Brittany could even open her mouth, Santana realises what the look on her face was for; "Sorry. _My mother._"

"Hey Santana, where are you from?"

Brittany instantly regrets asking as she watches Santana narrow her eyes and her face drop and somehow her skin turning a shade paler. Santana clears her throat and tries to shake of the tears forming in her eyes. "What do you mean?" she asks as she stands up again, straightening her skirt. Brittany mimics her actions and waits a moment before speaking again.

"I mean, where are you from. Like, you're accent isn't American. So, like, where are you from?" again, the blonde regrets asking as she watches Santana's face drop again.

"Puerto Rico." the Latina replies, coldly – her accent deepening as she rolled the words around. Brittany grins from ear to ear and she jumps up and down with excitement. So many questions were running through her head that she wanted to ask the raven haired beauty in front of her, who just stood, arms crossed and eyes narrowed, watching. "Something _amusing_ about that, _Brittany_?" Santana asks a little bit too harshly. The dancer stops jumping and stands staring at the floor, biting her nails.

"No. I just – um – it's ..."

Brittany stumbles over her words. Before she has chance to apologies, she looks up and notices Santana walking out from the park.

* * *

Santana opens the front door to her house quietly. She glances over to the clock above the fireplace in the living room; _11:30pm. _She kicks off her shoes and places them on the shoe rack below the stairs and slowly makes her way up the stairs – making sure she doesn't wake her mother. She steps on the first step of the stairs when she is abruptly stopped.

"Sit down, nená." her mothers' voice rang coldly from the kitchen table. The young Latina cringed and turned around to walk toward the voice. She drags her self into the kitchen and stands in the doorway, staring at the floor. "I said, _sit down_." Rita repeats, more sternly this time. Santana walks into the kitchen with a hangdog expression, keeping her head down the whole time. "What time do you call this?"

"Lo siento, mamá." Santana whispers. Her mother stands up and bangs her hands on the table, causing Santana to jump.

"What was that?" the older Latina shouts, making her daughter jump again. Santana looks up and looks at Rita. From seeing the look on her mothers face, she looks down at her clasped hands in lap in attempt to remain steady.

"I'm sorry!" she repeats, louder this time. The older woman sits back down, and takes a long drink from her wine glass. She taps her fingers on the wooden table, never keeping her eyes off her daughter.

"Where were you, querida?" her mother asks more kindly this time. The young girl looks up, with tears in her eyes – bringing her hands up to cover her face. Her mother takes another swig from her glass and waits for her daughter to stop crying before asking where she was again. Santana explains to her mother about meeting Brittany and going to the park with her, blushing whenever she mentioned Brittany's name; something her mother picked up on. Rita stood, glancing over at the clock on the kitchen wall. "Get to bed, Santana." and with that, Santana stood up and made her way to her bedroom, leaving her mother alone in the cold, dark kitchen.

* * *

Brittany stands at her doorway the following afternoon. She ties her jacket around her waist, tightens her ponytail and throws a backpack over her shoulders as she jumps off the step and walks across the yard. She stands motionless at the end of the yard for a moment – staring over at Santana's house across the street. Glancing down at the watch on her left wrist, she frowns when she notices the time;_ 2pm, she should be in, _she thought to herself. She ran across the street and across the yard of Santana's house. Hesitating on weather to knock or not, she stands there for a moment, reliving the conversation she had with the young Latina the night before_. Is this really a good idea? _she thought_, I did kinda upset her._

Just as she was about to knock, the door swings open. Rita stands in the doorway, her hair in curls and wearing her waitress uniform. The older woman stares down at Brittany for a moment before the blonde finally speaks, "Hi, I was just wondering if Santana was in."

"Who's asking?"

Brittany blushes from embarrassment and steps back. She gulps and shakes her head. "My names Brittany, ma'am. Santana's... friend?" she says, in question form. The older Latina narrows her eyes at her and Brittany's eyes widen. She found it remarkable how much Santana and her mother were alike, in personality as much as looks.

Santana stands at the bottom of the stairs, wondering what her mother was talking too. She clears her throat and Rita turned around.

"Who's that, mamá?" Santana asks. Rita stepped behind the door, revealing a timid looking Brittany standing on the step, biting her nails. Santana blushes and smiles at the young blonde. "What's up, Britt?"

Brittany looks and blushes at the welcoming smile spread across Santana's face. She stops biting her nails and smiles back. "I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out." she clasps her hands together behind her back and begins to rock back and forth, the smile never leaving her face.

Santana jumps down the remaining steps of the stairs, grabs her jacket and puts on her shoes before joining the blonde on the doorstep. Rita stands, watching as the girls walk down the yard. "Despedida, nená." she calls, but her daughter doesn't turn around.

The girls wander over the heart of their cul-de-sac. Santana stops walking as Brittany continues walking toward an old house. The blonde continues talking and doesn't stop until she realises that she's talking to herself. She turns around to find Santana looking around confused.

"Why'd you bring me here?" Santana asks.

Brittany giggles and runs over to her, grapping a hold of her arm and pulling her towards the middle house. Together, they walk up the drive way of the house and Santana begins to panic about where Brittany was taking her and what was in the back of this house. They climb behind the garage, cross the yard and stop at the end where they stand in front of a large fence.

"Just gotta climb this," Brittany begins as she hoists her self up the fence. Santana shouts for her to get down but she ignores her, grinning ear to ear as she turns around to face her before jumping over the other side. Santana hears slight splash as Brittany hits the ground. "Come on, San."

"Is that water? Brittany, is that water? Why is there water? What's on the other side of this fence, Brittany?"

She hears Brittany giggle and walk around, kicking the water. "It's just a puddle. I'll catch you if you like. Just hurry up." Feeling the heat build up in her cheeks, the Latina places her foot on the lowest ledge of the fence and pulls herself up. Peering over to find the dancer grinning up at her with her arms spread open, her stomach flipping and the nausea building up in her chest. She swings her legs over and looses her grip on the fence – squeezes her eyes shut and opens them again when she realises she's safe in the strong arms of Brittany. Brittany looks at her for a moment – watching as her nose scrunches up and her eyes crease as she smiles a wide, toothy grin. The blonde carries Santana a few feet away out from the puddle and gently places her down on a grassy bank. Santana stands taller than Brittany now; their eyes locked their smiles wide. Santana jumps down from the stump and moves closer to Brittany, feeling the heat burning up in her cheeks again as they stand only inches from each other. The duo are split a part when a ball flies towards them and hits Brittany square in the face. She screams at the contact and clutches her cheek, falling to the floor. Santana looks in the direction the ball came from and saw a large group of kids walking towards them.

"Sorry, didn't see you there, _Brittany_." one girl snarls, causing Santana's skin to crawl. As the girl moved closer to the girls, Santana scanned her. Her long blonde hair draped in ringlets over her shoulders, her slim frame hugged her dress and how her hips moved perfectly as she walked. Her piercing green eyes lock onto Santana's as she crouches down to pick up the ball.

"It's alright, Quinn." Brittany replies, blushing with embarrassment as the girl smirks at her, "I'll watch where I'm standing next time."

Santana watches her friend, taking in how Quinn petrifies the innocent blonde. She wasn't taking any off it. No one should feel threatened by anyone – especially Brittany. She stands up, brushing her skirt down and slowly made her way towards Quinn. Brittany runs over to Santana, grabbing her arm in attempt to pull her away. Quinn turns around and looks down at Santana, a dirty look spread across her face when she soaks in her appearance in.

The way Quinn looked at her made the anger build up in her, and she tried to pull herself from Brittany's grip, shouting Spanish curse words at the top of her voice. Brittany wraps her arms around her and carries her away, apologising over her shoulder at Quinn who was laughing at them. The group that Quinn was with begin to laugh as they walk off the way they came.

The blonde puts her friend down on a rock, pulling her back towards her when she realises that she was set to run after Quinn. Brittany held Santana at arms length, her eyes watering from the pain throbbing in her cheek.

"You can't let people treat you like, Britt," Santana begins, placing her hand on Brittany's check, pulling it away when she hears Brittany wince, "That's bruising already."

"I'll be fine." Brittany whispers, letting go of Santana and pulling her own hand to her cheek and patting it slightly. "You don't mess with Quinn, okay?"

Santana's lip curls at the mention of Quinn's name "Why?"

"Just don't!" the blonde snaps. Santana's eyes widen and she turns away from Brittany. Brittany runs around to face her, staring at her and searching her eyes for a look that she was just going to get up and leave her again. She takes a hold of her hand and pulls her off the rock, "Come on then. I want to show you something."

They walk for at least forty minutes before Brittany stops in front of an overly large tree. Santana rolls her eyes at Brittany who pulls her around the other side of the tree. This side of the tree is covered in vines; Brittany pulls the vines to the side and reveals a room sized space in the tree. She drags an amazed looking Santana into the tree and lets the vines fall back into place. Santana stands in astonishment, looking around the tree; how high up it went and how wide it was.

"Wow." is all she can manage to say.

"I know. It's amazing isn't it?" the blonde replies excitedly. There's a slight crack on the other side of the tree that the sunlight was seeping into through. Santana watches as Brittany stands with the sunlight bouncing off her hair. She slowly walks closer to the blonde – her stomach tightening with every step – but she stops as Brittany turns around, her hair spinning around with her. "What?"

"Nothing."

Brittany smiles at Santana and walks towards the vines, stopping meters before. She places her hand into a hole in the tree wall. "This place is perfect for letters, but I don't get any."

"I'm sure you'll get one, one day Britt." Santana replies, moving towards Brittany again, to have a look in the hole. Brittany turns her head and smiles widely at the Latina, giggling as she watches her blush.

Brittany sticks her head out of the vines, looking around outside before pulling back in with a serious expression plastered on her face, "Can you run, Santana?"

Santana's eyes narrow, "Of course I can run…"

"Can you climb?"

"Probably."

"Good." Brittany shoves Santana's shoulder with her palm and runs out of the tree. Santana stands in confusion for a moment before realising what just happened and runs out to follow Brittany. Santana spots Brittany running towards another tree and sprits to catch up with her – this coming off as difficult as she realised that she'd never be able to catch up to the long strides the blonde girl was taking. Before Santana even reaches the tree, Brittany is already half way up climbing it and giggling when she notices Santana gasping for air, holding her arm up for Brittany to help her up the tree. "I thought you said you could run," she laughs as she pulls Santana up onto the branch below her.

"Obviously not as well as you." Santana breathes, lying against the trunk of the tree, not planning on moving again. Brittany falls backwards and hangs down from her legs on the branch above Santana. She swings back and forth for a while just listening as Santana regains her usual breathing and when she finally does, she grabs hold of the branch Santana was sat on and swings from it with her hands, pulling herself up to sit opposite Santana.

She looks at the brunette who is idly staring off into space. "How old are you, Santana?"

Santana checks back into reality, "I told you yesterday." Brittany bites her lip in concentration to remember, her mouth wide open and her eyes creased causing Santana to chuckle at the blonde's expression. Brittany smacks her lips together when she finally remembers Santana's age. "Getting old," Santana adds, rolling her eyes at Brittany when she tries to tell her she's not, "What about you? How old are you?"

A smile creeps up on Brittany's face. She looks down at her hands and begins to count to herself, closing her eyes. Santana stares as the dancers lips move wordlessly and begins to feel her body move towards Brittany, snapping back against the tree trunk when Brittany flicks open her eyes;

"Fourteen years, eleven months and twenty five days!" the blonde laughs.

"You're fifteen in five days?"

Brittany nods enthusiastically, a wide grin spread out on her face. She asks the Latina if she'd go to her party, screaming in happiness when she agreed to go for the food.

"Hey, Britt," Santana begins, feeling her stomach tightening with every passing second. Brittany turns to her, asking her what was up, "Do you have a boyfriend?" The blonde shakes her head, bringing her hand to her cheek and rubbing it through gritted teeth. Santana cringes as she watches her face scrunch up in pain and she takes Brittany's backpack from her back and pulls out a bottle of ice cold water. She takes of her jacket and pours some water on to the sleeve, handing the sleeve to Brittany and telling her to put it on her face. Relieved at the sudden contact of cold to her burning check, Brittany sighs and lies against the tree trunk, humming along with the birds in the distance. Santana watches as Brittany hums herself into an effortless sleep, following her not moments later.

* * *

Santana's eyes flicker open; the air suddenly becomes cold and the sky is now a luminous red. She runs her eyes and yawns, looking over at Brittany who is still sound asleep, Santana's jacket wrapped in her arms. Feeling guilty about waking her up, Santana shakes Brittany awake.

"Time to go home, querida."

Brittany returns Santana's jacket to her cheek and jumps down from the tree, holding one arm up to catch Santana and rubbing her eyes with the jacket sleeve with the other. Santana jumps down and lands next to Brittany, who is still standing with her arms out. The Latina laughs when she pulls Brittany away, by her arm, away from the tree and en route back towards the fence. Brittany yawns and unconsciously slips her hand into Santana's who blushes at the contact.

The duo remains quiet the whole way home, not even speaking to say goodbye as they arrive at Brittany's doorstep. Santana knocks on the door and gives Brittany a quick hug before running off to her own house. Inside she finds her mother asleep on the kitchen table. She makes her way to her bedroom, kicks off her shoes and throws down her bag before falling into her bed and letting out a deep, loud sigh. She gets up and walks towards her window, looking outside and notices Brittany lying on the grass staring up at the sky, still clutching Santana's jacket to her face.

The Latina moves to her dresser and pulls out a blank piece of paper from the draw and sits cross legged on her bedroom floor. She stares down at the paper on her lap. She picks up her pencil and begins to scribble down the first words that fall into her head. She hears Brittany's mother call her inside the house, laughing when she hears Brittany plead for five more minutes outside and rolling her eyes when she hears her sulk and slam the front door behind her.

She has finished writing not five minutes later. Santana holds up in front of her, clicking her tongue in concentration as she tries to come up with an ending. She writes down the first words that come to her head, staring at it for a moment before erasing it and just signing her name. She places it in an envelope and seals it. Stepping into her shoes once more, she opens her bedroom window and climbs out onto the roof, shimming along the wall and grabbing a hold of a drain pipe to slide down it. As soon as her feet hit the floor, she makes a run for the centre of the cul-de-sac, not stopping until she reaches the fence in the garden of the old house. She climbs up the fence and jumps over the other side, splashing through the puddle and continues to run. Shortly after, she stops by the large tree that her and Brittany were in earlier and waits for a second so she can catch her breath before running round the back and stepping inside. She looks across the wall for the opening that Brittany showed her before and places her letter there;

"I told you you'd get a letter one day, Britt." she whispers to herself.

* * *

**NOTE: Hope you enjoy this one as much as I have done writing it. I have many more ideas to throw at you for it and alot of the other chapters are already in progress!**

**The title for this chapter is from the song Ordinary Day by Vanessa Carlton.  
**

**Any questions, don't be afraid to ask me; thecarwashkid on Tumblr! :D  
**


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